Love is romantic, but when is a forbidden love; the outcome can be tragic just as the story of Francesca and Paolo. People that have affairs know their actions are wrong, but are strongly led by their current feelings which often cannot be controlled, completely unaware of the repercussions a forbidden love can bring. Francesca and Paolo experienced this love affair, their love was sincere but it was the act that placed them in Hell. even though society portrays this action as sinful, a person cannot resist of who they fall in love with, and is one's choice if they want to act on it or not. Dante wrote the romantic affair story between Francesca and Paolo in "The Inferno" in Canto V and how the power of love led them to be punished together for adultery. .
Coming into the second circle of Hell, Dante encounters Minos who is the judge of the damned sinners; he tells the souls where to go as they arrive. Dante sees souls flying in circles like birds "Here, there, up, down, they whirl and, whirling, strain with never a hope of hope to comfort them, not for release, but even of less pain.", as in flying hopeless against the wind. Dante also encountered many other famous people with love stories like Semiramis, Dido, Cleopatra, Helen, Achilles, Paris, and Tristan, who have died in result of their love to their lovers. Dante asks Francesca to tell him her story, as she tells her story he feels sympathy for her, he was moved, and his response was emotional. .
Francesca began telling her story, she was married to Giovanni Malafesta, it is said he was disfigured but powerful, and their marriage was political arranged. Paolo, Gianciotto's brother, and Francesca soon became lovers, and she described how they had fallen secretly in love. They were both reading a book about Lancelot and Guinevere, who also had a forbidden love. While reading about Lancelot and Guinevere's story, it intrigued Francesca and Paolo's love; it pushed them to express their love to each other.
